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Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
asleep and the butler kicks him out.
Jurgis tries to change the large bill, but the bartender cheats him, and he beats the bartender up. Once again in jail, Jurgis meets Jack Duane again, and this time takes up with him after his release. They steal and they beat people up, but Jurgis decides he wants to get into politics where he sees easy money being made. He meets up with Bush Harper who helped him get his naturalization papers, and Harper helps him get into politics. He works with Harper and gets the Republican nominee elected by working in a packing mill again and appealing to his coworkers. When they go on strike after the election though, Jurgis is expected to be a scab. He gets a raise and he becomes acrooked scab boss, accepting bribes and making sure the injured and sick animals are slaughtered. Jurgis takes up with a woman but he sees Connor at the brothel, he beats Connor and is beaten senseless himself. He asks Harper to help him get out of jail, but he is denied help because of who he beat up. Connor is powerful. Harper finally agrees to get his bail reduced and Jurgis skips town. He heads for the far end of the city.
Jurgis is reduced to begging again but he soon learns where Marija is and goes to find her. He finds that she has been working at a brothel and that she is a morphine addict. The police suddenly arrest everyone at the brothel and Jurgis gives a false name at the station. The next day, when he tells the judge that he was simply looking for his sister at the brothel, he is let of and the madame pays the girls' fines. Back at the brothel, Marija tells Jurgis that Stanislovas was killed when he fell asleep after work and was eaten by rats. Tamoszius ran off after he lost a finger and was no longer able to play the violin. Marija then tells Jurgis where Elzibetha is and that he will surely be welcomed back into the family. Jurgis doesn't want to return to the family without a job so he searches for one, but when he can't find one he steps into a warm bar for a rest. He is caught up in the Socialist speakers speech and he feels empowered. He seeks out the orator, who asks him if he wants to know more about Socialism. He does and a Lithuanian speaking Polish Socialist, Comrade Ostrinski, takes Jurgis home with him. He learns all about Socialism and Capitalism from and Socialist perspective, and he feels more empowered than ever before.
He goes to Elzibetha with the news that he has found out about Socialism. He gets a job at a hotel run by a Socialist and he becomes involved in securing votes for that party. He tries to convince Marija to get out of the brothel but she insists that she will die there, and that she is [next page]